Without a doubt, this is one of the strangest and most peculiarly bad movies ever made and was virtually impossible to sit through. Visually and in demeanor this movie most closely reminded me of James Bidgood's "Pink Narcissus", with it's immensely crowded and cluttered forest set filled with a riot of glitter and junk, although apparently it wasn't enough to cover absolutely every square inch of surface with fake greenery, trees, flowers, and rocks, but the very air, too, had to be packed solid with the inexplicable disturbance of constantly blowing pollen, leaves, flower petals, butterflies, dandelion seeds, and for all I know, party confetti and ticker tape. It's a wonder each actor didn't die from hayfever asphyxiation, and it was like they were in the middle of a relentless mosquito infestation or a swarm of drunken moths. This was supposed to be an innocent paradise, but only if paradise is the aftermath of a pillow fight inside Sleeping Beauty's briarpatch.
The music, too, was relentlessly awful, the worst effect of all being whale songs as a musical illustration for the unicorns. Yes, one can argue that whales have an "innocent mystical" quality, but their songs immediately put one in mind of the ocean, not horses with horns glued to their foreheads!
There were some plusses to the movie--the appearance of a devilish Tim Curry was amazing and all of his evil henchmen were well-created, particularly Brix, with his smarmy demeanor. Both the Tom Cruise character and the Princess were well cast and appropriately beautiful-looking (if a bit too clueless) as representatives of the forces of light. The Princess had the additional good quality of demonstrating a slight distrustability about her, like it actually would be possible for her to succumb to the charms of the lord of darkness. I thought the elf that helped Tom Cruise was sufficiently involutionary in his appearance, except I believe the character's voice was dubbed in by someone other than the actor playing the part...it just didn't fit him at all.
The story itself was just plain stupid and ultimately meaningless, with not one sense of wonder, danger, bravery, cleverness, or triumph. It didn't matter the slightest what happened to any of the characters and actually what did happen, I think, was in violation of the structure that the story attempted to set up, that the two opposing forces HAD to coexist, so how could one ever triumph over the other one?
In short, I felt that this had to be Ridley Scott's very first film (and I couldn't imagine that he would have been given the chance to ever make another), and was surprised to discover that it was his second or his third! Whoever green-lighted this project and actually let it be released the way it ended up probably was, themselves, lost in a swirling cloud of too much substance taken up the nose.
The music, too, was relentlessly awful, the worst effect of all being whale songs as a musical illustration for the unicorns. Yes, one can argue that whales have an "innocent mystical" quality, but their songs immediately put one in mind of the ocean, not horses with horns glued to their foreheads!
There were some plusses to the movie--the appearance of a devilish Tim Curry was amazing and all of his evil henchmen were well-created, particularly Brix, with his smarmy demeanor. Both the Tom Cruise character and the Princess were well cast and appropriately beautiful-looking (if a bit too clueless) as representatives of the forces of light. The Princess had the additional good quality of demonstrating a slight distrustability about her, like it actually would be possible for her to succumb to the charms of the lord of darkness. I thought the elf that helped Tom Cruise was sufficiently involutionary in his appearance, except I believe the character's voice was dubbed in by someone other than the actor playing the part...it just didn't fit him at all.
The story itself was just plain stupid and ultimately meaningless, with not one sense of wonder, danger, bravery, cleverness, or triumph. It didn't matter the slightest what happened to any of the characters and actually what did happen, I think, was in violation of the structure that the story attempted to set up, that the two opposing forces HAD to coexist, so how could one ever triumph over the other one?
In short, I felt that this had to be Ridley Scott's very first film (and I couldn't imagine that he would have been given the chance to ever make another), and was surprised to discover that it was his second or his third! Whoever green-lighted this project and actually let it be released the way it ended up probably was, themselves, lost in a swirling cloud of too much substance taken up the nose.